Posted on 12/14/2002 5:37:27 PM PST by Asmodeus
Edited on 04/13/2004 3:38:14 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Bush administration has prepared a list of about two dozen terrorist leaders whom the CIA is authorized to kill if capture is impractical and civilian casualties can be minimized, senior military and intelligence officials said.
The previously undisclosed CIA list of targets includes Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and other principal figures from Al-Qaida and affiliated terrorist groups, the officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Not real familiar with American football over there, are you? :D
sober
killers
we
spend
wepons
Keywords on this forum & to most of us you meet on the street would walk away with the impression you give us . Make your bones and stand for something .
The best defense is a good offense. The government is there to provide for our defense needs and our infrastructure. I would rather spend money on developing new weapons then most anything else the government wastes money on. We cannot protect our freedom with pretty words and happy songs, we need to back our freedom with weapons and with the fortitude to use them. There are lots of people in the world who would gladly attack us and take what we have, I for one have no desire to make it easy for them.
If your worried about the government using it's powers against the people then I would suggest not voting liberal - as they see government intrustion into our lives as the answer to all our problems. Government does some things well - like defense, road building, etc. Other then that it should leave us alone and concentrate on what it's roles are.
The constitution was written to limit the power of government and it's roles. The more money spent on doing those roles is less spent on pork and other stupid programs which serve no purpose other then to rob us of our freedoms.
As long as we have the 2nd amendent I am not worried about the government (although it is being watered down - I wonder how many of our forefathers who owned guns had to do back ground checks, have waiting periods, etc - it seems to me that they had the oppurtunity to control guns way back when and did not take it...wonder why....).
I do understand where you are coming from though in your concerns, politics can get ugly and if politicians turn that power on the people of their own country we will have a time of it. We need to clean house and keep real conservatives in government who will shrink government and it's powers down to where they should be, while at the same time providing the offense/defense we need to maintain our freedom from those who wish to take it from us.
It is amazing that liberals will rip bush all day long on saddam, yet clinton said the exact same things as bush did - saddam needs to go, has WMD, etc (and I have the clinton qutoes to back it up on my profile page with links). While we may have enemies within there are many more without we need to focus on. The liberals want to focus on the US internally and pretend that we are the cause of our enemies hating us - of course we are, they hate us because we will not become what they want us to become. I do not want peace if it means giving up to the enemy, that is too french for me :)
Welcome to FR.
Under intelligence law dating back to the mid-1970s, the president must sign a finding to provide the legal basis for CIA covert actions. In response to past abuses, the decisionmaking process has grown into a highly formalized review in which the White House, Justice Department, Pentagon and CIA take part. The administration must notify congressional leaders of any covert-action finding signed by the president. In past cases of lethal force against members of Al-Qaida, congressional leaders have been notified as required, the officials said.(Snip)
The newer list represents an expanded CIA effort against a larger number of Al-Qaida operatives outside of Afghanistan in countries such as Yemen. The president is not legally required to approve each name added to the list, nor is the CIA required to obtain presidential approval for specific attacks, although officials said Bush has been kept informed about the CIA's operations.
(Snip)
Harethi is believed to have been on the list of Al-Qaida leaders that the CIA had been authorized to kill. After the operation in Yemen, U.S. officials said Bush was not required to approve the mission immediately before the attack was launched, nor was he specifically consulted. Intelligence officials said the presidential finding authorizing the CIA to use lethal force against terrorists was not limited to those included on the list. Bush has given broad authority to the CIA to kill or capture operatives of Al-Qaida around the world
It looks to me like the terrorists were getting word of the operations through moles in the government. This blanket approval may not stop all the leaks, but it will certainly help to pinpoint them.
I like it. It would be nice to see this tradition revived.
The less gifted amoung us may whine about this, but natures laws are not to be ignored even anthropologically.
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